Following the Money: Evidence for the Portfolio Balance Channel of Quantitative Easing Staff Working Paper 2018-33 Itay Goldstein, Jonathan Witmer, Jing Yang Recent research suggests that quantitative easing (QE) may affect a broad range of asset prices through a portfolio balance channel. Using novel security-level holding data of individual US mutual funds, we establish evidence that portfolio rebalancing occurred both within and across funds. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Monetary policy, Monetary policy implementation, Monetary policy transmission JEL Code(s): E, E5, E58, G, G2, G23
Sources of Borrowing and Fiscal Multipliers Staff Working Paper 2018-32 Romanos Priftis, Srecko Zimic This paper finds that debt-financed government spending multipliers vary considerably depending on the location of the debt buyer. In a sample of 33 countries, we find that government spending multipliers are larger when government purchases are financed by issuing debt to foreign investors (non-residents), compared with when government purchases are financed by issuing debt to home investors (residents). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Debt management, Economic models, Fiscal policy, International financial markets JEL Code(s): E, E2, E6, E62, F, F4, F41, H, H3
Does Outward Foreign Investment Matter for Canadian Productivity? Evidence from Greenfield Investments Staff Working Paper 2018-31 Naveen Rai, Lena Suchanek, Maria Bernier This paper seeks to understand how outward foreign direct investment (FDI) affects the productivity of Canadian firms. We estimate the impact of outward greenfield investment on measures of firm-level productivity using FDI data from roughly 2,000 Canadian firms and more than 4,000 outward FDI projects over the 2003–14 period. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Firm dynamics, Productivity JEL Code(s): D, D2, D24, F, F2, F21, F23
The BoC-BoE Sovereign Default Database Revisited: What’s New in 2018? Staff Working Paper 2018-30 David Beers, Jamshid Mavalwalla Until recently, there have been few efforts to systematically measure and aggregate the nominal value of the different types of sovereign government debt in default. To help fill this gap, the Bank of Canada’s Credit Rating Assessment Group (CRAG) has developed a comprehensive database of sovereign defaults posted on the Bank of Canada’s website that now is updated in partnership with the Bank of England. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Debt management, Development economics, Financial stability, International financial markets JEL Code(s): F, F3, F34, G, G1, G10, G14, G15
A Look Inside the Box: Combining Aggregate and Marginal Distributions to Identify Joint Distributions Staff Working Paper 2018-29 Marie-Hélène Felt This paper proposes a method for estimating the joint distribution of two or more variables when only their marginal distributions and the distribution of their aggregates are observed. Nonparametric identification is achieved by modelling dependence using a latent common-factor structure. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C1, C14, D, D1, D14, E, E4, E41
Bootstrapping Mean Squared Errors of Robust Small-Area Estimators: Application to the Method-of-Payments Data Staff Working Paper 2018-28 Valéry Dongmo Jiongo, Pierre Nguimkeu This paper proposes a new bootstrap procedure for mean squared errors of robust small-area estimators. We formally prove the asymptotic validity of the proposed bootstrap method and examine its finite sample performance through Monte Carlo simulations. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Econometric and statistical methods JEL Code(s): C, C1, C13, C15, C8, C83, E, E4, E41
Swedish Riksbank Notes and Enskilda Bank Notes: Lessons for Digital Currencies Staff Working Paper 2018-27 Ben Fung, Scott Hendry, Warren E. Weber This paper examines the experience of Sweden with government notes and private bank notes to determine how well the Swedish experience corresponds to that of Canada and the United States. Sweden is important to study because it has had government notes in circulation for more than 350 years, and it had government notes before private bank notes. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Financial services JEL Code(s): E, E4, E41, E42, E5, E58
Reconciling Jaimovich-Rebelo Preferences, Habit in Consumption and Labor Supply Staff Working Paper 2018-26 Tom D. Holden, Paul Levine, Jonathan Swarbrick This note studies a form of a utility function of consumption with habit and leisure that (a) is compatible with long-run balanced growth, (b) hits a steady-state observed target for hours worked and (c) is consistent with micro-econometric evidence for the inter-temporal elasticity of substitution and the Frisch elasticity of labor supply. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Economic models, Labour markets JEL Code(s): E, E2, E21, E24
On the Evolution of the United Kingdom Price Distributions Staff Working Paper 2018-25 Ba M. Chu, Kim Huynh, David T. Jacho-Chávez, Oleksiy Kryvtsov We propose a functional principal components method that accounts for stratified random sample weighting and time dependence in the observations to understand the evolution of distributions of monthly micro-level consumer prices for the United Kingdom (UK). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Inflation and prices JEL Code(s): C, C1, C14, C8, C83, E, E3, E31, E37
Ambiguity, Nominal Bond Yields and Real Bond Yields Staff Working Paper 2018-24 Guihai Zhao Equilibrium bond-pricing models rely on inflation being bad news for future growth to generate upward-sloping nominal yield curves. We develop a model that can generate upward-sloping nominal and real yield curves by instead using ambiguity about inflation and growth. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, G, G0, G00, G1, G12